If you are ordering something else from Clausing, buy two of the plugs, part # 557-097 or 557-047. The thickness is such that the top of the felt will be flush with the top of the oiler. The diameter of the low density felt plug is the same as the ID of the top of the oiler. And No, the felt plug doesn't go down in the small diameter hole. The same part was used from 1932 to 1981. Yes, your oilers are the same type as later came with the felt plug. To answer your two questions about the felt, yes and no. And reduce the chance of dropping it into the headstock.
But I would recommend changing yours as the Allen wrench will keep the screw on it, especially if you lightly magnetize the tip. Too many years have passed since then so I don't recall whether that's the way that it came or I changed it. My 12" bought new in 1981 has an Allen set screw for an oil plug. Meaning that if your machine doesn't have them, add them. The felt plugs were added sometime between 19 and are considered retroactive.
And now I want to use it for some projects, so after having custody of it for almost 40 years it's probably time to learn how to operate it.Īnyway, thank you very much for the information, this has been very helpful A few years ago I retired and the lathe moved up here when my wife and I did.
He set it up in his shop, got it all adjusted, covered it with a tarp and happily went back to his woodworking hobby. After my late father-in-law retired I thought he might enjoy using it since he had been a machinist in the Navy in the early 1950s. Not long after that things got weird (I got married) and priorities changed. He obtained a larger lathe and asked if I wanted to buy this one back, so I did. A few years after that, he moved out of state and ended up near me again. A couple years later I moved out of state and we divided up the toys when I left the lathe stayed with him. I took his word for it and agreed to split the price with him. It came with a lot of the accessories and he thought it would be a good thing for us to pick up. It had been installed in a corner of the shop and used for little one-off projects and they wanted it out of their way. He had been to a machine shop discussing some work we wanted done, and came back and told me they had a small lathe for sale at a good price. We were both single at the time and had set up a personal use (non-commercial) shop and had been accumulating as much equipment as we could scrape together. The history of the lathe: back in the late 1960s a friend who is a few years older than me and is a mechanical engineer was mentoring me in high performance automobiles. Question about the oil cups: are these the type that take felt inserts? If so, are they just small diameter plugs that fit into the hole at the center of the cup? It is in the first open pulley to the left and in my case is a slotted screw. Also, the photo of the headstock showing the escutcheon also shows the hidden oil hole plug mentioned in the sticky "Lubrication Tip-spindle/back Gear Damage Warning For New Atlas Or Atlas/Craftsman Owners" post. The oil cups don't have the felt mentioned in other threads the attached photo doesn't show it very well because of the flash, but the bottom of the cup is not flat but is tapered to the hole. The escutcheon is rectangular as seen in one of the attached photos. Thank You! That was very helpful and explains why a few things have been confusing and I have had a hard time matching diagrams to the model number. I'm in no hurry, but it wouldn't hurt to keep this in the back of my mind as I reacquaint myself with the lathe. Now my questions: how available are replacement Timken bearings, and at what point do people consider replacing them? Is bearing replacement a painful operation or pretty straightforward? How about realignment afterwards? I admit I have not done much searching on the subject so links would be appreciated if anyone knows of reliable reference sources. Of course I would like the lathe to be as good as it can be and learning/improving skills is high on the list of things to do. My current projects don't require a lot of precision so a little slop here and there isn't a big deal my lack of skill is the limiting factor. Now I want to use it for some projects and it is time to get it going again.
I didn't make it past the basic beginner (is that redundant?) stage before I got sidetracked onto other things. I have used it very little over the years and not at all in the last 20 or so, and it probably should just be considered as having been in clean and dry storage.
I'm a new forum member here with my first post I have owned an Atlas/Craftsman 101.07382 12" lathe with Timken bearings and multiple accessories for many years.